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Round Two of Devastation 2011 brought even more zaniness to the Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament as many cosplayers joined the fray for the title of R.P.S. Champion. Out of the matches I saw, the most interesting was Morrigan vs. Ash Ketchum.

Ash used Rock! It wasn't very effective...

Now one of the funniest things about watching these matches was also the penalty that the loser was dealt. The loser had to give the winning player a massage. If I recall correctly, this was a penalty that the audience had decided for this particular match with the consent of the announcer who oversaw the match. So in the end, Ash lost the match and had to offer his skills as a masseuse to the winner.

Ashe used Massage. It's Super Effective!

And of course, who could forget the spectacle that was Tifa Lockhart vs. Poison Ivy? An epic showdown of femme fatales. One that Tifa unfortunately lost.

Poison Ivy enjoying the fruits of her victory.

Aside from the continuing Rock-Paper-Scissors and video game tournaments. I visited with some pretty interesting people who had set up their booths in the northwestern corner of the floor.

The first person I talked to was Ominous Red, a Hip Hop DJ who was showcasing his custom fightsticks. Having recently started his custom fightstick business, Ominous Red had several button layouts along with a myriad of designs to choose from.

A sampling of some of Ominous Red's work

Though there were mainly Tekken and Street Fighter graphics, Ominous Red also will work to try and put whatever kind of graphics you would like to grace your custom fightstick.

More examples of Ominous Red's work

Ominous Red even gave me a peek at some of the concept art that he was planning on putting on a new series of custom fightsticks. Drawn by a friend, they feature Star Wars characters with a Feudal Japanese flavor.

A peek at the cool designs Ominous Red has in store for gamers.

All in all, the designs look pretty cool and I look forward to seeing the designs on a custom fightstick in the near future.

While we chatted about fightsticks, conversation turned to our favorite kinds of games, particularly fighting games. Ominous Red confessed that he just recently started paying attention to the storyline behind the action in video games. I eagerly explained that my blog was centered around such topics. I went on to explain that my favorite fighting game: Soul Calibur IV was more exciting when immersed into the epic mythos of “souls and swords” that surrounds the series. My digression went so deep into battle tactics and combos that I inadvertently managed to get Ominous Red excited to play Soul Calibur again.

Ominous Red excited to be at Devastation 2011.

Bidding Ominous Red farewell, I moved along to the nearby booth of digital artist Anabel Martinez. Martinez was an avid Mass Effect fan and was showcasing some of her latest pieces of Commander Shepard and his crew members. Martinez was even sporting a fantastic Tali costume that was crafted with superb attention to detail.

I'm Commander Shepard and this was my favorite costume at the convention.

Most amazing of all to me was the fact that she had managed to fix the helmet in such a way that the mouthpiece lit up when she spoke as it does when Tali speaks in the game.

Finally, I paid a visit to the Aqua Red booth and took a look at their collection of unique graphic t-shirts.

Some of Aqua Red's latest t-shirts. All with rather awesome designs.

Once there, I also talked with Drew and Helsa who informed me that Aqua Red was a relatively new company having only been in business for little more than half a year. Drew showed me the latest shirt that they had made, a shirt covered with white tigers. It was part of a four part series that featured each of the Four Guardians of the Four Compass Points of Chinese mythology. The tiger shirt represented the Guardian of the West and the god of autumn: Byakko, the White Tiger.

The latest T-shirts made by Aqua Red. The White Tiger shirts are in the middle.

However, the Byakko shirts were only the second in the series. Seiryu, the Azure Dragon was the first in the series, with shirts featuring blue dragons in an eye-mesmerizing design. The shirts are also made in limited quantities, so the t-shirts quickly become collectables and hard to find after Aqua Red has sold out of a particular design. So when you check out Aqua Red’s shirts be sure not to wait too long to buy the shirt that catches your fancy.

I also got to meet the man behind the incredible artwork on the t-shirts. His name is Myke Bui, and he is the artist that designs the unique designs of Aqua Red.

The man behind the magic: Myke Bui

I must admit, I am a complete sucker for anything tiger-related. They are my favorite animal after all. So I picked up one of their Byakko T-Shirts and left to watch the continuing Soul Calibur IV tournament.

I have to say, watching the matches for most of the fighting games was a wonderfully intense experience. Especially the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 matches. Players would engage in a deadly dance in which the slightest misstep was punished with an insanely long combo that was sure to devastate the opposing player. Speaking of insanely long combos, I had gotten word that Justin Wong, the famed pro gamer was due to make an appearance at Devastation 2011. Perhaps he already had and I had just missed him for the day.

Whatever the case, I was excited to see Justin’s legendary skill in person. Devastation 2011 had only one more day left, but there was still plenty in store. I was looking forward to seeing the final rounds of the many tournaments, not to mention the League of Legends Dominion Tournament, which I believe is the first ever. For me, Sunday could not come fast enough.

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